


Missing

by VioletThePorama



Category: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Explorers of Darkness & Explorers of Sky
Genre: A bunch of pokemon, A fun dive into the realm of me restarting my game over and over again, Eventual gender-neutral pronouns for player character, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, I just choose a bunch of names for the Player and Partner character, Poor disoriented baby, i love them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 17:38:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18320075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VioletThePorama/pseuds/VioletThePorama
Summary: Every time they woke up, something was missing.Or: A take on restarting a game over and over again, from the Player character's perspective, of course.





	Missing

“Tell everyone about what happened here,” The Riolu pleaded, pausing in her fidgeting only to look the Pikachu across from her in the eye. “So nothing like this…  _ ever _ happens again.”

 

Her partner nodded, sniffing and watching her tearfully as the fighting type shone with an ethereal light. Something uncomfortably numb settled in her chest as she began to vanish. 

 

“Pikka,” The Riolu murmured, wanting to say more, but pausing to compose herself. 

 

“Shadow….” The Pikachu’s voice sounded to the side, thick with what were obviously tears, and the Riolu looked up, calm despite the situation, and earnestly thanked her partner for everything he had done. For everything and everybody they had helped. 

 

“I’m sorry,” Shadow promised, and forced herself to keep watching Pikka, even as the harsh light flashed, blinding her as everything began to fade out of existence. 

 

“Shadow-!” Her partner cried as the Riolu vanished, and then it went dark. 

 

_______________________________

 

The next thing they saw was more light, once again blindingly bright, before it went dark again. 

 

“Hold on!” A voice cried out to them, alarmed and familiar, and they  _ tried _ . With aching muscles, they pushed everything else out of their mind and they focused, and they  _ held on _ , flinching against the light and cold and-

 

They woke up, disoriented. Everything was horribly familiar, but everything also felt wrong, felt  _ off _ , and they felt sick. The sound of waves splashing on a shore filled the background, and the only thing they could comprehend before passing out again, was that everything felt…  _ different _ .

 

Next, they were awoken by somebody. A pokemon who sounded like someone plucked from their shoddy memories of… 

 

Where were they again?

 

The pokemon across from them - a Torchic - was different from what they thought they would be greeted with. She looked them over worriedly, feathers ruffled as she asked them if they were okay. 

 

They didn’t know but… They weren’t supposed to be there. They turned, and tried to explain this to the Torchic, voice soft as they tripped over their words, and the other nodded, puzzled but friendly. 

 

“I’m Ember,” She introduced, shuffling with nervous energy. “ You were a… human?”

 

They weren’t. But… Maybe a long time ago, they were?

 

“-Are you a girl or a boy?”

 

“A boy,” They answered, and looked down at themselves. “I’m... Trevin.”

 

“Trevin! It’s rare that you see Treecko’s around these parts…” She scooted closer, brushing the ground with her foot as he shied back. “There aren’t any humans around here either… But you don’t seem bad…”

 

Ember went to say something else, until she was knocked into him by two other pokemon. 

 

As she crashed into his already-sore-form, everything clicked into place. The stone and the Zubat and the Coffing and  _ Pikka _ who wasn’t a Pikachu anymore-

 

_______________________________

 

The Skitty sat on his bed, a comfortable, if small, area set aside in complete privacy from anybody but his partner. The confused daze and vague feeling of discomfort he’d had all day was nothing compared to the absolute joy of becoming a guild member with the Charmander across from him. 

 

The moon shone bright as Charmy smiled over at him, tired and still giddy from the day. “Scott…”

 

Scott looked up, blinking. 

 

“I never thought I’d be able to make it here…”

 

The situation felt familiar to him, as most things had that day. A sort of deja-vu, or tip-of-the-tongue thing, where the answer was just out of reach. 

 

Charmy smiled and Scott felt infinitely fond of her, despite only knowing her for a day. 

 

It felt like they’d been together for a lifetime. 

 

“Let’s give it our all tomorrow,” She declared, slumping back onto the bed, and Scott nodded in agreement, curling up. 

 

His head didn’t hurt so much anymore, and sleep would probably help him sort everything out. Though it would probably begin to ache again whenever Loudred decided-

 

Whenever-

 

When-

 

Who-?

 

… 

 

_ Oh _ .

 

_______________________________

 

Nothing had felt right to the Mudkip since she had been found on the beach by a sweet Cyndaquil who went by Cinna. Her shaky nature had obviously startled the fire type as she introduced herself as Freya, but it was quickly taken in stride as they dove headfirst into adventures. But it felt more like she was just going through the motions as they went from dungeon to dungeon.

 

Everybody they came across seemed too loud and too artificial. The only thing that remained warm and safe was her sweet Cinna. 

 

That is, until Grovyle appeared, stealing time gears. 

 

Cinna had been quick to trust the Mudkip, giving her some understandable doubt when her abilities began to manifest, and then backing her up all the way when the flashes and noises turned out to be terrifyingly  _ true _ .

 

But it was different with Grovyle. Freya hadn’t spent time or worries with him, and hadn’t paced around rooms with him, nervously energetic… right? But she could predict exactly what he was going to do, and it scared her to know what was going to happen. The water type always shied away from telling Cinna, not wanting to weigh her down with anything extra-

 

“Freya?” Her partner asked, and Freya shook her head, burrowing into her bed and muffling the accompanying sob that came with the motion. Then she turned, as the Cyndaquil quickly made her way over, and pressed against the fire type, clinging to her warmth as panic took over, sending her memories pouring over the dam in her mind. 

 

Each thing she remembered was a shock. Day after day of wasted time and wasted effort that  _ never _ seemed to stop-

 

_______________________________

 

Sometimes they remembered right away. Sometimes they didn’t remember up until Grovyle was… 

 

Up until their partner was…

 

Sometimes it took a long time for things to fall into place. Sometimes everything felt wrong right off the bat. Their body was never the same, and it was never as it  _ should _ have been, and it was awful. They changed and feelings churned in the pit of their very being because they didn’t know  _ who _ or  _ what _ they were.

 

They just wanted their partner. They didn’t want to disappear again. More than once, the idea in itself, of disappearing again, of vanishing from the timesteam, scared them. They knew it was what had to be done, but…

 

What if whatever loop they were stuck in never ended?

 

What if disappearing again only made it worse? 

 

What being erased from the timestream in the first place was what had caused the loop?

 

Nobody else ever remembered.

 

They had been so strong the first time, but with every time they remembered who they were, they started over, rewriting history with something else. Their partner continued to help and laugh and befriend them, and Grovyle always gave promises and apologies as they shared a few sacred moments of silent companionship. Of a lost friendship that neither of them knew how to fix. 

 

But it was never…  _ them _ . Even if they weren’t human anymore, even if they weren’t part of the  _ timeline _ anymore, they still had to be  _ something _ , didn’t they?

 

_______________________________

 

A Bulbasaur woke up, blurry and disoriented. Their head hurt, but they were faced with a Squirtle before they could recover. The Squirtle seemed weary, but not as nervous as he could have been. 

 

“I’m Dave,” The water type introduced, blinking at them in confusion. “What…  _ are _ you?”

 

“I’m…” The Bulbasaur blinked, and lowered their voice when the words seemed too loud. “I’m Falcon.”

 

“Oh. Are you a… Bulbasaur?” A nod. “We don’t get many of you around here… Are you a girl or a boy?”

 

There was a long pause, and Bulbasaur looked down, unsure of how to answer. Eventually, Dave nodded, shuffling in place. 

 

“You don’t have to be anything, I guess.”

 

“I’m not, then.” Falcon murmured. That suited them just fine. “But… I used to be human, I think.”

 

_______________________________

 

Dave and Falcon went from mission to mission, curling close at night, and murmuring to each other. Dave especially seemed to like bouncing ideas off of the grass type, despite the fact that they were actually quite quiet. 

 

Some things felt too close, too similar, too  _ familiar _ , but Dave was always quick to pull Falcon out of their thoughts whenever they ruminated on something for too long. 

 

Then came Grovyle, the time loops, and Celebi, with promises of restarted times and worlds that would be saved. 

 

Dave… wanted to save it. 

 

There was, of course, only one way to do so. It was frightening, but whenever Falcon showed even a hint of worry or doubt, Dave was there, comforting and reassuring and telling them they they didn’t have to-

 

But they pressed on. Until Falcon could step up and complete the quest and-

 

Everything made sense. It all hit them, each life and each friend and each dungeon along the way, glowing with the magic that enveloped and instead of staying quiet and composed like the last time they had been in that situation, they burst into tears and enveloped themselves in Dave’s warmth as they cried together. 

 

Up until Falcon died. 

 

Again.

 

Everything went blinding white, and then black. 

 

_______________________________

 

They appeared back at the beach, dizzy and sore, but they remembered everything. They braced themselves for it all to start over- but when nothing happened, when nothing pulled or changed or hurt, they opened their eyes to find that nothing had changed. 

 

They were Bulbasaur. 

 

They were… 

 

They weren’t sure of their name, but they  _ were  _ sure that they wanted to see Dave again. 

 

So they stood, and walked down the path, so where a Squirtle stood, talking with a Bidoof. 


End file.
